• Source:JND
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Days after his son received posthumous Kirti Chakra, India’s second highest peacetime gallantry award, the parents of Captain Anshuman Singh have demanded changes in the Indian Army’s next of kin policy for financial assistance to family members in case of a soldier’s death. Captain Anshuman Singh was awarded the prestigious Kirti Chakra posthumously for the ultimate sacrifice in saving the lives of his fellow army men during a fire incident in Siachen.

While speaking to a news channel, Captain Anshuman’s father Ravi Pratap Singh and Manju Singh, claimed that their daughter-in-law Smriti Singh does not live with them anymore and receives most of the entitlements following their son’s death.

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“The criteria set to NOK is not correct. I have also spoken to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh about this. Anshuman’s wife doesn’t live with us now, the marriage was just five months old and there is no child. We only have a photo of our son hanging on the wall with a garland on it,” Ravi Pratap Singh was quoted as saying by TV9 Bharatvarsh. 

“That is why we want the definition of NOK to be fixed. It should be decided that if the wife of the martyr stays in the family, who has how much dependency,” he further added. 

The late army officer’s mother Manju Singh also said that they want the central government to change the NOK rules so that other parents don’t have to suffer.

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What Does The NOK Rules Say

According to the NOK rules, if anything happens to a personnel in service, the ex-gratia amount is given to the  Next of Kin (NOK). When a cadet or officer marries, the spouse replaces his parents in the NOK record.

After receiving the award on Anshuman’s behalf, his wife Smriti Singh called their enduring love story, a journey that began with a chance encounter in college and endured through the challenges of a long-distance relationship. Captain Anshuman Singh, tragically lost his life in July 2023 while bravely attempting to rescue a fellow soldier trapped in an intense fire at an ammunition dump in Siachen.